Giving thanks for the timely rain which washed the smog out of the capital’s skies on Friday, the Supreme Court said that residents are left to pray for mercy even as government schemes to quell air pollution on the basis of reports, theories, and commissions have made little change in the ground situation.
“God may have provided some relief… must have heard our prayers in the morning… We are not looking at anything here but ground-level implementation,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, heading a three-judge Bench, observed.
The hearing, which seemed to coincide with the skies opening up, saw the Delhi government insisting on the efficacy of its Odd-Even scheme to control vehicular pollution in the city by reducing congestion on the capital’s roads. It said that the court’s suggestion to ban app-based taxis registered outside Delhi from entering the capital may cause a problem for commuters.
